Last year, on the first day of the Maine conference, which starts again today almost exactly a year later, I looked out at the 70 teachers attending, and there was a big guy, a Patriots fan, clearly an athlete, but also, as it turned out, a great German teacher and one of the finest human beings […]
We must be comfortable in our classrooms if we are to fully use our intuitive faculty and learn how to thin slice (Gladwell) when we are trying to create comprehensible input with our kids. If we are comfortable with the kids and the CI, things will go well. Little glimpses (thin slices) into what
Everybody talks about creativity. I heard the term “creative lesson plan” today. Barf. What is creativity and where does it come from? I don’t know what it is but I know when it shows up in my classroom. It has a different feel. It grabs our attention. It arrives always in unexpected forms at unexpected
Remember the Maine Hogs? We heard from one of them the other day, how she was doing after graduating, grunting snarkingly in the college grammar troughs. She was looking for the high quality food she enjoyed from Anne’s kitchen while hearing Anne Matava stories for four years, but, according to her, was finding only kitchen scraps.
Dr. Krashen has set before us an enormous challenge by his suggestion that we learn languages unconsciously. That is because learning in schools is typically about conscious, analytical, left brain deciphering of subject matter. Thus, in languages, we have created books to help us present the language, but that very fact takes us, if
Robert sent this email: Hi Ben, I just wanted to share a comment I came across in a German-English forum I visit. Someone asked for a translation of the name of the equation for velocity = distance x time. One of the replies used standard American terminology, substituting the word “rate” for “velocity”. A contributor
Here is another email from Vernon Lee. It describes a poignant moment at the Japan seminar: Ben, The Japanese lady who sat close to me asked me a question during the break. A little history first. After the first day my new friend and I were walking to the bus stop about a 4 minute walk
This is from Vernon Lee who has a TPRS language school in Fujisawa, Japan, about an hour south of Tokyo: Ben, Once Susan started and her words had all been translated into Japanese we felt that we weren’t alone anymore. She adjusted her presentation to reach her new eager audience patiently waiting for everyone in the
Duke was in today and observed. He shared a great idea that I would like to expand on a little here. My level 2 students had heard so much auditory CI in level one that he suggested my asking what they thought about the content of the song (Aicha by Khaled Sahra) we were working with. Which
Elissa asked for some thoughts on transitioning into stories. Carla or anybody – please constribute on this topic – we need to start talking about it. I am sure that there are many other blog entries on this site over the past three years that also address this topic, so if anybody finds any now is a good time
This is from Martha Nojima: Ben said Susie galvanized teachers here in Japan. That’s right. A year ago when I started this I never imagined it would be so successful. The timing was right for many things and they clicked into place to make this work. Susie told me she was nervous about presenting in
Jack Taylor you are right I am just waiting for stuff I can share here about Susie’s visit to Japan. The single word that comes to my mind so far from this visit is “galvanized”. Susie galvanized teachers – that’s what she does. She makes them feel like they can do it. They are already creating a
